Investigation of growth conditions for epitaxial growth of SiC on Si in the solid-source molecular beam epitaxy

Thin crystalline SiC films were grown on Si(111) using solid state evaporation at substrate temperatures between 780 and 900 degrees C. The growth rates were in the range between 30 and 120 nm h(-1). The films were characterized by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD. The films grown at high temperatures and low growth rates were found to be epitaxial. They mostly consist of twinned-cubic structure, but with increasing layer thickness hexagonal stacking sequences often were found. In the orientation distribution function full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of down to 1 degrees were measured. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.